Pictures on the Paper
by InkedBaby
Summary: She's the inspiration behind all of his art, can she ever be more? Oneshot, OOC, Dasey, short ends up sweet. Not my usual style, but whatever.


**AN: I'm writing this in bed from an iPod, so it'd be nice if you could maybe, possibly, you know, disregard small mistakes? Thank ya! This is really OOC and it was meant to be angsty, but its really not that much, so if you don't enjoy that... Oh well. Happy ending though, so that's good?**

**Summary: She's the inspiration for all his art, could she ever possibly be more?**

**Disclaimer: Nope, nothings mine, sorry.  
**

The white paper in front of him quickly began filling with lead. Bold, dark lines here, subtle smudges there. Derek was barely aware of anything around him as his mind ran through image after image. Soft curved limbs twisted in every position, dancing across his minds stage as his hand ran across the paper.

Derek wasn't the type to get emotional or sappy, he'd never told a girl she was beautiful or pretty, he just couldn't. Sure, he'd called a fair share of girls hot or sexy, but that wasn't the same. He didn't have to reveal emotion with those words, only attraction. How he did reveal emotion, though, was on paper, and he never shared that with anyone before.

He glanced down at his paper and swallowed thickly, the face staring back at him was nothing if not beautiful. The body twisted in a position he'd seen quite a bit on the stage was more attractive than any other body he had seen before, it was breathtaking. As he looked down he could almost see the intense blue eyes sparkling back up at him. They were challenging him, pushing him, egging him on, infuriating him beyond all belief... Teaching him how to feel, how to care, how to love. The picture didn't do Casey justice.

Derek sighed as he stared at his work, and grabbed a nearby folder from his desk. The folder held multiple pictures similar to the one he'd just drawn. Well, of the same subject, anyway. Everytime he'd pick up a pencil she'd seem to be the only thing that'd come to mind. He had pictures of her in every setting possible, his favorite being one of her in a fit of rage, yelling at him for one reason or another. Derek loved seeing Casey angry. Sure, it was a weird thing to enjoy, but he never saw her more passionate or lost in her emotions than when she was angry at him, and he held a small bit of pride in the fact that he could affect her so much.

Dereks mind began to wander as he stuffed the new image into his folder and stared and the open folder on his desk. Were Casey's eyes so full of passion when she kissed someone she really liked? Did they hold as much emotion when she was declaring love rather than hate? Did anyone else's name bring a spark to her eyes when she said it, whether it be joy or anger? Would he ever be able to see that directed towards hims-

No. He wouldn't let himself go there, not anymore, he'd promised. Well... He'd promised himself, does that even really count? Whatever, days are way easier to get through when hopeless 'what ifs' aren't running through his mind.

Derek sat back in his desk chair and rubbed his eyes, maybe he could call someone to hang out or something? Sitting home all weekend isn't going to do him any good, and finding some new girl to go out with is sure to take his mind of Casey for a little while. Hopefully.

Derek hopped up to get dressed as someone banged on his door. "Open" he called, expecting Edwin or Marti. "Derek, did you decide green apples is the right smell for you recently? What'd you do with all my body spray?"

Derek looked at his step sister quizzically and dead panned "because there aren't three girls in the house you could ask, right?"

He turned around again and pulled the shirt he was wearing over his head, scanning the floors and surrounding areas for somethelse more preferable. "Whatever, Derek, they wouldn't have used half the bottle in one day, I know it was you."

As he picked up a long sleeved band shirt off the floor and smelled it, he turned to Casey, "look, I don't have time for this klutzilla, I didn't use your stupid lotion or soap or whatever your talking about so just leave."

Derek threw the shirt on and looked at his pants quickly before deciding he looked good. "That"s disgusting Derek, you don't even know if that's clean," Casey grimaced, making her way into Derek's room. "Have you ever heard of cleaning? Or laundry?" Her eyes scoped the room, looking for her spray, disgust evident on her face.

Ignoring her comment, he narrowed his eyes. "I said leave, not come in." Derek followed her with his eyes and watched Casey sit down in his desk chair before he saw it. He forgot to put his folder away, hell, he didn't even close it! "Casey leave!" he all but yelled, lurching towards her.

"Whats wrong with you Derek? It's not like me sitting here is going to infect anything." Another glance around had her grimacing again, "as if it already isn't..." Derek was reaching for her wrists in full panic mode before he realized his mistake. If he wasn't it was less likely that she'd realize anything. He straightened up abruptly and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Uh... right, fine..."

Casey looked at Derek like something was growing out of the top of his head before casually glancing around the room again. Oh God she's got to stop doing that! He thought frantically and couldn't stop the automatic jerk forward of his body. He realized his mistake again at another look from Casey and frowned at himself. Seriously, why is he acting like this? He needs to get a hold of himself before he gives everything away himself. Derek glanced down quickly at his folder, then up to Casey's face. He was momentarily caught off guard when he looked at her amused expression, her eyes were lit up with laughter and the smile she was holding back was making her whole face glow. Wow, Derek, he thought snidely to himself, your so sappy.

"What's wrong with you?" Casey raised an eyebrow. Derek scowled, "just wondering while your still here, when your presence obviously isn't welcome." You can definitely come back later though, when the folders away... No, shut up! Derek screamed at himself in his mind. When he looked up at Casey he found her spinning slowly back in forth in his chair and nearly had a heart attack. Her eyes fell on his desk and Derek froze. No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Derek braced himself for whatever possible response that could be thrown at him, and Casey gasped. "Derek, I didn't know you could draw!"

Derek couldn't speak, he was horrified. She going to see how creepy and stalker-ish he is. Shes going to look through the folder, find only pictures of herself, and freak out about how obsessive he is. Maybe he could snatch it really quickly? No... that wont help, it'll just make her more curious. God, he's just going to have to let her look at it...

Derek turned around and walked to the edge of his bed, her didn't know what to say or do. He didn't even know what to think if he was being honest. He heard paper shuffling and small gasps here and there, but the a constant ringing had started in his head and it was slowly getting louder and louder. He faintly heard a whispered Derek, but he couldn't focus, he was panicking, and it was so out of character for him, he didn't know how to deal with it.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Derek registered Casey standing behind him, he heard her say something but didn't quite hear her, and then she left. Derek's panic was subsided and anger and sadness started creeping into its place. Of course this would happen, he scared her away! She saw all the pictures and freaked out and left, now he would never, ever going to have a chance with her. Yeah, right, he reprimanded himself, there was never even a chance to begin with. This is Casey, grade-grubbing, klutzilla, way-better-than-Derek, Casey. Not to mention his step-sister... Even if he did have a chance with her nobody else would approve, their family and friends would think they were crazy. It is legal, (yes, he looked it up, thank you very much) but nobody else would see it that way.

Derek sighed, and collapsed, head in hands, onto the edge of his bed.

"Derek?" His head flew to the door where Casey was standing, holding a small book he never saw before. "If you're here to-" he started, not really ready for whatever she had to say. A small "shh" cut him off, and they're eyes locked for a minute.

"I, uh, I knew you wouldn't believe me if I said anything, so I went to get this..." Casey looked around nervously, what if she misread his drawings? What if he didn't feel anything for her and just liked to draw her? Before she could convince herself not to, she held out her journal (the real one, not the decoy that she let Derek find) and watched as he slowly reached out to grab it.

Derek opened the first page, it was dated nearly a year ago and only had two sentences written down.

"Today I read that it's legal for step siblings to date if neither of them were adopted by the others parent. Maybe I can hope."

Derek bit his lip and read the page over and over again, then closed it and threw it on the bed, he didn't even need to read anymore right now, that told him everything. He remembered the first time he worked up the courage to look up the law on step sibling relationships. It was the day he realized there was no hope for feeling anyone else other than Casey, and he was completely in over his head.

He was sure Casey could see the smile on his face before he even looked up at her.

"Derek, the pictures are beautiful," she said, never breaking eye contact once their eyes met. "They have a beautiful subject," he whispered. He knew Casey knew him enough to know how much that one sentence meant coming from him. His heart was beating erratically, his breathing was labored, and he had never been more nervous in his entire life, but when Casey smiled and whispered a small "thank you," none of that mattered.

Derek pulled Casey into a hug, and he was sure that a hug has never meant more to anyone anywhere else, ever. Her head was buried in the crook of his neck, and his nose was nuzzled in the top of her head. No words were needed, nothing else was needed. Nothing else mattered but them, and that's how it always had been, and always should be.

**AN: I don't like this, I'm not going to edit it or reread it or anything because if I do I probably won't post it, so sorry for any mistakes.**


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